Macon beacon., 1887-06-11
ANCIENT MAIL SERVICE.
ahe Postal systems Existing I'm Antiquity
and During the Middle Ages.

1he Postal systems Existing I'm Antiquity
and During the Middle Ages.
1t has been declared that all romance
passed out of the mail service with the
old posting days. This may be true,
but it is also fact that sufficient inter
est IS to be found in the infancy Of let
tcrwriting for the satisfaction of the
curious. The ancients had no convent
ent postal arrangements, a fact easily
accounted for by the poverty Of their
writing materials, as neither the waxcn
tablets used by pupils under tuition,
nor the leadcn plates upon which the
pilgrims wrote questions when they
consulted the oracle of Dodona were
OF suitable shape for transportation.
The first step toward portable writ
ing materials lay in the adoption Of the
papyrus, but for long time after that
mankind seemed little inclined toward
an interchange of written thought.
The real origin of lcttcr-writing was
in Egypt, and the two forms of letters
llrst IN use were an open sheet and
closed roll. The two most progressive
States Of antiquity, however, the Per-
sian and Roman empires, were the first
to attempt systematizing the mail SER
vice Rome probably followed the
lead of Persia in the matter, and the
origin Of the curSuS pujlicuS, or public
post system, is traced back to the time
of Augustus.
According to this arrangement, a
system of communication, which was
rapid for those days, was effected be-
tween all parts of the empire. Be
| tween one mdnSi0, or station, TO an
other was days journey, and at each
OF these points forty mules were at all
times kept standing in readiness for
travel. The "mutations,n which were
between the manSioneS, were intended
| simply for the exchange of horses, and
not as a shelter for travellers, and
here also twenty animals We're always
waiting,
During the Middle Ages, no general
| postal communication was preserved,
Us letter-writing had quite fallen into
disuse. Only the monks still practced
1t, and the monastcrics and universe
ties became the only postal stations OF
the time. Of course, no convenient
postal arrangement could exist with
out reference TO some central depart
mcnt, or Office, and consequently none
was successfully attempted as long rs
thc.empircs Of the Middle Ages consisted
merely of independent states held to-
gcthcr by loose feudal system.
France first attempted a uniform
postal system, which under Louis XIV.
reached quite respectable condition.
Still, the postage was eXtrayagantly
high, and the secrecy Of a correspond
ence was so little respected that people
did not take the trouble to seal THEN
letters, but merely fastened them to-
gcthcr with needles Richclicu ; maxim
| '''e '~'r ''''-,'.., ..---, -.'-- i--a..
with which he acted upon it, "Sirc, il
one wishes to know what there is in 9
letter, eh Jien one must open it and
readn'
In modern times all the appliance,
of science have been pressed into tho
service of eXpcditing the mails. There
are still peculiar methods of transit
In British India, the yelocipede is the
vehicle of the carrier; the camel bear.
the mail through the desert and the
reindeer effects communication among
the frozen regions of the North. -
| lo,,yb's Io,,,r1,io,,